Fungal Meningitis News

WEDNESDAY, May 29 – Since the start of last year's outbreak of fungal meningitis cases linked to tainted steroid injections, federal health officials have recommended three to six months of antifungal therapy to combat potentially fatal infections. But health officials reported Wednesday that an 80-year-old man received four-and-a-half months of antifungal therapy and seemed cured, only to suffer a relapse that put him back in the hospital. Writing in the May 29 online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it's not clear if the current treatment guidelines are adequate. "Some patients with central nervous system infection may require prolonged antifungal therapy owing to the chronic nature of fungal diseases and the difficulty in maintaining adequate drug concentrations" in the cerebral spinal fluid, they ... Read more